Learning Power Pioneers: ‘Inspirational Doers

Introduction by Becky Carlzon, Primary Teacher Bangkok Patana School 2018-2020

The very best teachers are lifelong learners. They are curious, hungry to find out more, driven to be the very best they can be, both in and out of the classroom. In a professional sense, this lifelong learning can take on many forms – completing a Masters, reading about the latest educational research, observing and learning from a colleague. Learning to improve and refine our practice is inspired by colleagues, school leadership and educational researchers – we could think of these researchers as “inspirational thinkers” – people who drive our learning forward through research and developing new forms of thinking. However, these theories, research and ideas have little impact without people to put these ideas into practice in real classrooms – cue the “inspirational doers”!

Teacher-led Action Research

Learning Power Pioneers is a teacher-led Action Research group, full of “inspirational doers” – teachers who are dedicated to deepening their understanding of the process of learning and transferring this understanding into classroom practice.

Based on frameworks from leading educational approaches, teachers in this group have been exploring “Design Principles” of a learning-rich classroom; the idea being that teachers and mindfully and purposefully design their classrooms, amongst other things, to:

• Make them safe places to make mistakes, • Tailor environments and learning opportunities that are rich in

During the visit this very naturally moved towards the children becoming ‘Learning Friends’. They were happy and relaxed learning together.

collaboration and challenge, and • Structure language in a way that promotes deeper thinking and a positivity towards challenging learning.

How does it work?

Teachers have taken a “Design Principle” to explore and study each term. Rich, shared discussions have deepened pedagogical understanding and created shared plans for how to translate these into classroom practice that will impact learning.

The power is created through a combination of deep pedagogical

In plenty of classrooms children ‘do group work’. In fewer do teachers deliberately structure the classroom so that children’s skills as collaborators and conversationalists are systematically stretched and developed. Guy Claxton and Becky Carlzon, Powering Up Children

understanding with the freedom and opportunity to tailor each Design Principle to individual classrooms and settings. As such, each teacher has taken on their own line of inquiry throughout the term and reported back their findings. Some of the questions the group have raised and investigated include:

• How can we develop our classrooms as habitats of wonder? • How can we develop interactive tools to promote child-initiated challenge? • How can we show the journey of learning not just the finished product?

All of these inquiries have focused our thinking into the learning that is going on in the classroom; including how to make learning visible to the children and how to deeply involve them in their learning process.

Pioneering CPL at Bangkok Patana

The group of teachers have not only shared ideas with other Year groups and faculties within Bangkok Patana, bringing together inter-Year group collaboration and integrated specialist teachers, it has also reached out internationally, by collaborating with teachers on a global platform and drawing on the expertise of specialists in each area of study. For example, one inquiry led the group to collaborate with world leaders in developing “thinking routines” for English language learners. Thus, the group is learning from experts within the school as well as international experts. This progress and collaboration is “live” – it happens in the moment, depending on what each teacher is investigating when.

More case studies here. Learning Powers Pioneers link: https://www.patana.ac.th/wp-content/uploads/ 2020/10/Learning-Power-Pioneers.pdf

A Case Study on Inter-Year Group Collaborations

By Julie McGlynn and Sarah Murgatroyd

At Bangkok Patana, during group time, Foundation Stage 2 (4-5 year olds) children have Learning Partners. This is one of the key skills of Collaboration from the ‘Learning Power Approach’ (LPA). Through an inter-Year group collaborative project, we were inspired to undertake a case study to see how Learning Partners could be introduced to children in FS1 (3- 4 year olds).

For collaboration with our youngest learners to be effective, well-being was paramount. This began with curiosity and a high ceiling, low threshold learning environment: a trip to our Outdoor Classroom.

To broaden, deepen and strengthen the children as ‘Learning Friends’ we needed to give them a communication toolkit. Moving on from using social language in their talk to using ‘academic’ language to communicate their thoughts and ideas. This is embedded in our development of language through Play in the Foundation Stage at Bangkok Patana. Teacher use visual prompts held by the children to remind them of their role in the talk and taking turns is emphasised.